Father from the heart

I don’t think it’s that unusual to have several fathers, or is it?

My birth father Larry was exceptionally talented and good looking. I wish he was still alive today. He died rather young because of two medications that didn’t jive, erupted in his stomach and killed him, he was only 45. He played flute, piano, guitar and sang. He had a band with my mom called Severed Hands of the Severed Mind. I don’t have any of those recordings. That was in the 60’s.

When my mom remarried Tom SEVERAL years later it was on a beach. She married this guy who loved to dance. He came from Indiana, where he studied art. I was probably 6 or 7 years old. Tom would spend hours with me drawing. Later in my teens he spent hours teaching me Hatha yoga. He is NOW one of Tucson, Arizona’s most well known Hatha yoga teachers. During this relationship, the astounding, bright and brilliant Jade Twilight was born!!

When the relationship to Tom ended my mother spent 16 years with Ron. I was about 13 when my mom and I would go listen to Ron play music at clubs. She sat in and played flute. He’d play his guitar and sing like there was NOTHING going to stop him. I’ll never forget how he’d rock his body to the rhythm of his guitar, while his smile took up his WHOLE face. He influenced all of us to move to Mexico. He still has a place in Yelapa. I was taught songwriting and guitar rhythm style from him.

There was a “Love Ceremony” when she married Rigoberto. A beautiful man from Veracruz. The two of them created quite a duo with classical music. I visited them while they lived on a ranch near Puerto Vallarta. Rigo helped me record and video “3 Generations”.

My Godfather David was there from the beginning and to this very day! He came with his wife Jetta to Germany when I was born. He carried me on his back in a backpack. While in Germany while I slept he let my mom and Jetta perm his hair. These days he drives a Harley…well, it’s in storage while he recovers from spine surgery. It was because of him that I loved convertibles. He ALWAYS had one. His most famous line to me “create your OWN mantra!”.

Chew slow, be happy and EAT chocolate!

I LOVE chocolate, don’t you? Of course you do!! If you don’t you’re NOT human. I bought this bag of chocolate today and boy, did it satisfy an amazing craving I had. So much for the advice “when you have a craving for something sweet, go ahead and walk around the block and when you come back see if you still want it”. Well heck yeah I still want it! Are you crazy?
After I have chocolate or something REALLY yummy I usually feel like Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man, where instantly I am all suited up and ready for take off. That must be powerful stuff eh? The bad part is I usually “crash” after the rush. What do you do when you “crash”? Here’s what I do. I usually run around in a circle 3 times, do the mexican hat dance and then drop! I don’t get up until I feel certain that someone else has polished off the rest of the chocolate…or sometimes what I do is I holler from the next room as I lay sprawled out on the carpeted floor…”will someone PLEASE hide the rest of those chocolates”.
And then after a day or so I am begging “will you tell me where you stashed those chocolates?” “I am okay now, really I am”. I blame this inconsistency entirely on my family tree.

One of my favorite movies as a child was “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory”. Our long time family friend Brian McCue actually looks like Gene Wilder. (pictured above with another of my favorite people Chandika). I think I probably watched the movie “Like Water for Chocolate” a dozen times and cried my eyes out! So many times I thought it would be fantastic to open a chocolate shop like that woman did in the movie “Chocolat”.
You probably wonder “why in the world is she buying Hershey’s chocolate?”. Here’s my answer “Because it was there”. Believe me, I used to ONLY buy organic dark chocolate from Whole Foods. I’ve loosened up SOOOO much since having Paloma and ya know what it FEELS GREAT! Anyhow…I just recently read an article from Hershey’s chocolate that said “chocolate more nutritious than fruits”. What??? With that said…I’m NOT one of those “believe everything you hear, read type gal”. In the meantime…I’ll be saving my pennies to open a chocolate shoppe built in a treehouse! Yes. I think I’ll name it “Wild Child Turtledove Chocolate”. Too long? Okay, how about “Beaming Smile Chocolate”? Perhaps not so good if we had to shorten it, that would be “BS Chocolate”. Probably NOT a big seller I’m thinking. I’ll leave you with a fun quote I read somewhere “Nuts take up space where chocolate ought to be”.